Jail’s Return in Brooklyn Raises Hopes and Fears

Trymaine Lee

April 4, 2007

New York Times

When YaYa Ceesay’s dream of opening a soul food
restaurant came true in 2003, business, at first, boomed. He had found a great
spot along an up-and-coming stretch of Atlantic Avenue across the street from
the Brooklyn House of Detention and quickly built a strong group of regulars.

He opened the doors each day at 6 a.m., and from then
until after the lunch crowd headed back to work, his restaurant, the Soul Spot,
was packed with correction officers, prisoners’ families, neighborhood residents
and passers-by. Fish and grits, chicken and waffles, scrambled eggs, salmon
cakes — you name it he served it.

But in June 2003, three months after his glorious
introduction to Brooklyn, the jail closed and the breakfast crowd disappeared.
Three months after that, Mr. Ceesay was forced to trim the Soul Spot’s menu, and
he moved back its daily start time to just before noon.

When the prison population left, he said, about 20
percent of his customers went with it.

Now that the city’s Department of Correction has said
that it wants to reopen the jail and double the inmate population in five years,
Mr. Ceesay and many other nearby business owners are saying they will be more
than happy to provide food or services to those who will work there or who will
visit the people held within.

“The jail being there was really good for us,” Mr.
Ceesay said. “The corrections officers and all the breakfast they ate was a big
part of the business. It was good for us.”

But not everyone is quite so happy that a jail that
once held 700 inmates will hold more than 1,400 if plans become reality.

Some residents in the area said that what is good for
the mom-and-pop businesses might not be so good for the moms and pops whose new
condominiums, many worth several hundred thousand dollars, would be just down
the street from the repopulated jail.

“Go ask the parents of the school kids who go to
Packer who will have to walk past the jail on their way to the store for a bag
of potato chips,” said Corey Baylor, an investment banker who moved into a State
Street condo four days ago, referring to the Packer Collegiate Institute on
Joralemon Street. When the jail closed, the area surrounding the corner of
Atlantic Avenue and Boerum Place, where it sits, was trying to reinvent itself.
It was an unremarkable neighborhood of gas stations and hunched old office
buildings. Today it is home to some of the newest high-end apartment buildings
in Brooklyn. There’s a sparkling new
YMCA a block away from the old jail, a high-rise is being built next door
and rows of condos line State Street a block away.

Mr. Baylor said the resurrection of the jail could
hurt growth in the neighborhood. He suggested that the city lease or sell the
building to a company that would be able to bring in the kind of money the
community needs to nurture more residents.

Correction Department officials said they want to
encourage the economic gains on Atlantic Avenue, which is why they are seeking
to include commercial space in the expanded jail.

Those plans do not alleviate Mr. Baylor’s concerns.
“If the jail never comes online, we’ll all be very excited,” he said. “If it
does come online, we’ll be extremely disappointed. What about all of those
people who bought condos here and were told that the jail would never reopen?”

Onur Aktulgali, manager of a gift store near the jail,
said the Correction Department plan is “not good for Brooklyn.”

“Brooklyn is developing,” he said. “Nice places for
shops, nice places for people to sit at coffee shops or cafes. The last thing we
need is a jail next door.”

Ludner Jacques, who lives in the area and works at the
Brooklyn Criminal Court building, said he has heard the buzz about the
jail-reopening plan but does not understand what the fuss is about.

“It’s going to be interesting,” he said. “It makes me
laugh, actually. You know, when you are paying this kind of money for a place,
you don’t want to live next to prisoners. But if we can live here, and people
live in this area, why not inmates too?”

From behind the counter at the St. Clair Restaurant at
Atlantic Avenue and Smith Street, opposite the jail, the owner, Costas Costa,
watched the comings and goings yesterday. Since 1968, when he bought the
100-year-old building where he operates the restaurant, Mr. Costa has served
diner food to anyone who wants it.

“For business, it’s a good thing,” he said, wiping
down the counter with a stained rag that was once white. “The area doesn’t like
it. But we made good money with them there.”

Back at the Soul Spot, a few doors down from the St.
Clair, Mr. Ceesay cut a few pieces of his prized meatloaf. Then he lifted his
head and took a step back, chuckling.

“The neighbors act like the prisoners are going to be
out in the streets causing trouble,” he said. “But they’ll be kept inside, in
check. And we look forward to having them back.”